AN: Sorry it has been ages since I updated! I've been on vacation and busy. But here it is! I hope I didn't lose too much momentum with the characters. And please forgive any OOC-ness with the members of the Fantastic Four!

As always, review please! :)

Phil, Pepper, and Maria unloaded six very tired kids outside of Stark Tower. Phil carried Natasha, and she fell back asleep in his arms on the way up the elevator. They had intended to go grocery shopping after the mall, but decided to let the kids nap while Maria and Phil went shopping. Pepper thought she'd be able to keep track of all of the sleeping kids. They settled the kids into their beds for a little nap, and pretty soon all the kids were asleep again, or at least were pretending to be. Pepper settled herself onto the couch and relaxed.

In the kids' room, most of the kids were asleep. Bruce and Tony, however, were awake.

"Are you awake?" Tony asked, whispering loudly.

"Yeah," Bruce answered. Tony was already up and tiptoeing over to Bruce's bed.

"Let's go play with our toys. Pepper put them in the kitchen. Come on," he said, pulling Bruce's blankets back. Bruce rolled out of bed before Tony could find further ways to make him get up.

The pair snuck out to the living room where Pepper was on the couch. They sunk to the ground and crawled through to the kitchen. The toys were sitting on the table, and they silently grabbed their respective items and tiptoed over towards the stairs. Once they were out of earshot, they began whispering excitedly.

"I don't know why we need to take naps. We're not babies," Tony said.

"Yeah. Only babies take naps," Bruce added. They set their stuff down in a mostly empty room and began tearing at the wrappings. Beaker by beaker, they pulled out the items from the science kit. Bruce picked up the instruction book. "Look at all the cool experiments we can do!"

Tony rolled his eyes. "We don't need instructions," he said, grabbing the booklet and tearing it up. After he tore it up, he reached for a container full of green liquid. These were all harmless concoctions, but the boys felt like they were playing with dangerous chemicals.

Bruce poured a similar liquid into a beaker and set it on the hardwood floor. Tony had abandoned the liquid and was now opening up some things that looked like Tums. He dropped one into the liquid Bruce had poured and it started to fizzle.

"Cool!" Bruce said.

"Sort of," Tony mumbled, disappointed. He then proceeded to drop three more of the pellets into the vial. At that, the liquid bubbled up over the rim and onto the floor. "Now it's cool!" They were both giggling excitedly when the bubbles continued to pour out of the beaker.

Pretty soon they had exhausted the limited supplies the kit came with. They were drenched in the green liquid, some slime, and water from the bathroom sink. Tony walked over and began opening the remote control car. There was a battery charger included that needed to be plugged into an outlet to power the car, and Tony grabbed it and walked to the nearest outlet.

"There's already batteries in the car and the remote, Tony," Bruce said, turning over the car in his hands. Tony had already knelt down in front of the outlet, and when he went to plug it in, something went wrong. His hands and the plug had been wet when he plugged it in, and in turn he received a shock. It knocked him onto his rear end, and he sat there staring at the offending outlet for a few seconds.

Bruce dropped the car and ran over to his friend. "Are you okay!" he asked nervously. Tony nodded slowly.

"That was awesome!" he answered, standing up. He was unsteady and wavered a little bit, but it didn't slow him down at all.

"You could have died!" Bruce said, still concerned. "What did it feel like?"

"Tingly," Tony answered before running over Bruce's foot with the car. Just then, Pepper came running in. The shock had caused the other room's power to dim, and then she had heard Bruce's worried exclamation.

"What on earth do you boys think you're doing?" she asked.

"Playing," Tony answered a little too quickly.

"Tony got shocked when he plugged in the car," Bruce said, knowing she'd find out eventually.

Pepper hurried over to Tony. "Is that true?" she asked, worried. She took his face in her hands and looked him over. She reached for his hands next and noticed a small burn on his right hand.

"Yeah, but I'm fine!" Tony said, pulling away from her. Pepper didn't let go. She grabbed his arm and Bruce's shirt-sleeve and marched them downstairs. When they got downstairs, Phil and Maria had arrived with the groceries. Director Fury was with them.

Phil saw the hold Pepper had on the two boys and stifled a chuckle. "This oughta be good."

"They were up on the next floor conducting experiments. And in Tony's case, electrocuting themselves," Pepper said.

Phil nodded. "Well, that doesn't surprise me. Is he okay?"

"He has a little burn on his hand, but other than that, yes." The talking had woken some of the other kids. Clint plodded out of the bedroom, rubbing his eyes. He wasn't looking where he was going and bumped into Fury, falling backwards and landing on his butt. His hearing aide was on the kitchen counter from before the nap. Phil grabbed it and slipped it onto Clint's ear.

Fury looked down at the sleepy-eyed kid and smiled. Director Fury's smiles were few and far between. At least his sincere, non-menacing smiles. "I'm told you can hear now," he said, bending down and helping Clint up. "Is that true?"

Clint nodded. "Yeah. What's wrong with your eye? Why do you on-y have one?" Maria and Phil froze, glancing at the director's face, unsure of how he would respond. To their relief, he chuckled lightly.

"I only need one," he said. That seemed to satisfy Clint's curious mind. He turned without another word and went back into the bedroom. Seconds later, he emerged again with Natasha. He pulled her by the arm and walked up to Fury again.

"What your name?" he asked.

"You can call me Director."

"Dir-direc-or?" Clint clarified. "This is Nat. We're f-iends." Fury was chuckling still. "Why are you laughin at me?"

"I'm not laughing at you. And I have a deal for you. You can call me Nick, but only if you are really good." Clint nodded. Steve and Thor had also exited the bedroom.

"I'm hungry," Thor announced. Thor was always hungry, as an adult and a child. "Can we eat dinner?"

"Yeah. I think that's a good idea. Reed Richards and the rest of the Fantastic Four are back at S.H.I.E.L.D. Maybe we should see if they want to grab dinner somewhere," Phil answered. "What do you think, director? Can S.H.I.E.L.D. pay for dinner?"

Fury rolled his one eye, but agreed. The kids went to put on a new outfit they had picked out and Phil called Sue Storm, because he knew from previous experience that Reed wouldn't even hear his phone if he was working. One by one, the kids came out dressed in their new clothes. Natasha put on a dress with her Converse, and asked Maria to put her hair in a braid. Clint was sitting on the floor trying to tie his shoes, and when he saw how cute Natasha looked, he froze.

Natasha walked over to Clint and knelt in front of him. Without asking, she reached forward to help him tie his shoes. Clint didn't appreciate it though. "-top it! I can do it by myse-f…myself!" He emphasized the 'l' in self the second time he said it. As he was saying this, he shoved Natasha backwards and she almost toppled over. She retaliated by ripping his shoe off and chucking it at his head with impressive strength. "OW!" he yelled. He stood up, but before he had a chance to tackle Natasha, Fury intervened, picking him up and setting him on the counter.

Natasha stuck her tongue out at him and walked over to the other boys who were lining up at the door. Fury retrieved the thrown shoe, slipped it on his left foot, and tied them.

When they pulled up in front of S.H.I.E.L.D. the members of the Fantastic Four were waiting outside. Reed was looking distracted and obviously annoyed about not being in the lab. Happy stopped the limo and they climbed in. It was cramped, but everyone fit, even Ben, who sat shotgun. They greeted each other, pulled the door shut, and were driving off again. Clint was staring at Ben from the second row of seats, his mouth slightly agape. Ben noticed, and rolled his eyes.

"What are you looking at, kid?" he asked gruffly. Clint immediately looked down at his hands. Sue was sitting next to Clint.

"Ben, they're just kids. Give him a break," she scolded him. "My name's Sue. What's your name?"

Clint looked at her from the corner of his eye, still uncomfortable. "C-int," he answered quietly.

Coulson leaned over and whispered in Sue's ear that his name was Clint before she called him the wrong name. "Hi, Clint. The guy in the front seat's name is Ben. He's nice, I promise."

"Just don't get on his bad side, kid," Johnny warned from the back seat of the limo. "He's got a real temper." Sue rolled her eyes and Reed nudged Johnny in the gut. "I'm just kidding. He's a lamb," he corrected. Happy stopped the limo in front of an Italian restaurant. They all climbed out of the limo and congregated on the sidewalk. Clint was standing as far away from Ben as possible. Bruce, Tony, and Thor were all intrigued with him though. Tony was poking him in the arm. Ben just chuckled. Thor was climbing up his other arm, and Bruce was just looking.

"Why are you made of rock?" Clint asked, walking over to him and pulling Natasha with him.

"It's a long story," he answered. Clint nodded.

"Oh." The grownups ushered the kids into the restaurant. They were lucky the place was deserted, because they hadn't even thought about making reservations.

"Hi. How many?" the waitress at the front asked as they walked in. Phil answered that there would be twelve. Maria and Fury had gone back to headquarters, and thus wouldn't be dining with them. The waitress told them to wait while she pulled some tables together.

Once they were all seated, the waitress handed them menus. The kids were given kids' menus with coloring pages on the back, and she gave them each a small pack of crayons. Steve was thrilled. He carefully took out the four crayons and laid them out next to his paper. As he meticulously colored the sheet, Clint observed. As an adult he'd been the same. He was more comfortable watching than participating. Even though he was incredibly cocky, he also tried to shun the spotlight as much as he could. He was an observer.

"Are you going to color too?" Steve asked Clint.

"Yeah. You're good at coloring. Are you a awtist?" he asked, completely serious. Steve shook his head. Clint started coloring on his own sheet, but he stayed hunched over the paper.

Sue was sitting beside Clint, and Natasha was on her other side. "Are you going to color, Natasha?" she asked. The redhead shook her head.

"No. Wanna play tic-tac-toe?" she asked Sue. Pepper was surprised when Natasha knew about tic-tac-toe, given Natasha's less than average childhood. Sue agreed and Natasha drew the board. "You can be X's," she said. Sue won the first round, and Clint was leaning over in his seat to see.

"I wanna p-ay," he announced. "Nat, let me p-ay."

"You could say please, you know," she said, glaring at him. Tony snickered from across the table.

"No, he can't say please. He says peas," he said. Natasha turned her glare to him. "What? He does!"

Bruce was looking awkward. He wanted to defend Clint, but he and Tony were best friends. He didn't want Tony to be mad at him. He decided that he should help Clint, though. "Be nice, Tony. He can't help it, and you shouldn't make fun of people because they talk funny."

Sue was watching this whole exchange with wide eyes. Clint looked hurt, and she thought he was going to cry, but then he picked up a crayon and chucked it at Tony's face, hitting him right between the eyes.

"Ss-top it!" he screamed, emphasizing the 's'. If there had been any other patrons in the restaurant, all eyes would have been on the kids. "You're a bully. And I don't like you. And Nat don't either."

"Doesn't. Not don't," Natasha corrected him quietly. He glared at her before grabbing his ears. He took out his hearing aid and threw it onto the table.

Phil had quietly stood up and walked around the table to Clint. He knelt down and put his hand on Clint's back. Clint was crying now. He motioned for Clint to come with him and grabbed the discarded hearing aid. Silently, they walked to the other side of the restaurant.

When Phil went to put Clint's hearing aid back in, Clint threw himself on the floor. "No!" he cried. "I don't want it!" He was sobbing now, and Phil pulled him onto his lap and held him as he cried. Natasha walked over slowly, pulling an uncomfortable looking Sue with her. Natasha had grown attached to her, just as she had with Maria and Pepper. She seemed to crave a motherly affection. When Clint noticed them, he tried to stop himself from crying, but that only made it worse.

"I would tell you they're not always like this, but that would be a lie," Phil said, smiling at Sue. Natasha crawled up on the bench next to Phil and put an unsure hand on Clint's arm. He looked at her shyly, and she pointed to the hearing aid in Phil's hand and then at Clint's ear, telling him to put it in. Her eyes told him that it wasn't an option. He didn't fight when Phil put it back in. He had turned the volume down a little bit to give Clint a break. It may have been too much too fast for him to adjust to.

"You should stop crying. Just ignore Tony. He's a jerk," she said. Clint nodded and took a shaky breath.

"I'll talk to Tony and tell him he needs to start being nice, but I don't want you guys getting back at him. That will only make him be more mean," Phil instructed. "Why don't you two wait here with Sue for a minute." He walked back towards the rest of the kids.

Sue sat down where Phil had been sitting, and Clint looked up at her. He leaned his head on her arm. "Why id that guy made of rock?" he asked suddenly. Sue smiled.

"It's a long story," she answered.

Clint rolled his eyes, but didn't ask any more questions. Phil motioned to Sue for them to come and rejoin the table, so she took Clint and Natasha both by the hand and they walked back over.

AN: I should have another chapter up soon, since this one ended sort of abruptly.